Corporations required to file electronically may use the following approved guidelines to prepare their income tax returns for tax years ending on or after December 31, 2008 without the need for a waiver. These directions are not all inclusive. This is a living document and it will be updated as needed. Updated sections will be identified by the date they were updated.

Corporations should carefully review the permanent directions for electronic filing contained in Publications 4163, 4164 and/or " IRS e-file for Large Taxpayers filing Their Own Corporate Income Tax Return" which is an addendum to Publication 4163.

Corporations required to e-file may elect to use any or all of the following directions.

Corporations that are e-filing may not send paper versions of any forms to be included as part of their return. Additionally, PDF format may ONLY be used for the forms listed in Section 1 below. Any deviation from these temporary directions will require a formal waiver approved by IRS. (Guidance on Waivers for Corporations Unable to Meet e-file Requirements)

PDF file must be named and described as “Form 2553” (see Filing Requirements for Filing Status Change for additional information)

Form 3115 – Application for Change in Accounting Method

If filed with return, required in XML

If previously filed, allowed as PDF

Form 4466 – Corporation Application for Quick Refund of Overpayment of Estimated Tax

Form 6198 – At-Risk Limitations

Form 8283 – Noncash Charitable Contributions

Required as XML unless

Filing 10 or more forms OR

3rd party signature is required

Form 8621 – Return by a Shareholder of a Passive Foreign Investment Company or Qualified Electing Fund

If filed with return, required in XML

If received from a 3rd party, allowed as PDF

Form 8716 – Election to Have a Tax Year Other Than a Required Tax Year

Form 8832 – Entity Classification Election

If filed with return, required in XML

If previously filed, allowed as PDF

Form 8838 – Consent to Extend the Time to Assess Tax Under Sec. 367 - Gain Recognition Agreement

Note: If a new form is created late in the year as a result of legislative changes, and the software industry does not have time to enable the form in XML, then that particular form can be attached to an 1120 or 1120S electronically filed return in PDF format. You should refer to the Late Legislation Impact for MeF TY2008 Forms and Business Rules web page for a list of these forms.
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These directions MUST be followed by ALL Mixed Group Corporations that e-file.

A Mixed Return, for purposes of e-filing only, is an 1120 consolidated tax return (that means the parent return is an 1120) that includes at least one subsidiary that is either a Life Insurance Company (Form 1120-L) or a Property and Casualty Insurance Company (Form 1120-PC).

Only 1120 parent Mixed Returns that meet the asset (>= $10 million) and return filing (>= 250 returns) requirements are required to be filed electronically. Form 1120-PC and/or Form 1120-L returns filed as stand alone returns or as the parent of a consolidated return must be filed in paper.

For Mixed Returns with tax years ending 12/31/2006 and later, the Form 1120-L and the Form 1120-PC subsidiary returns will now be required in XML. The e-filing format mirrors the M-3 requirements and includes subgroups and sub-consolidation returns, when applicable.

Schedule M-3 is required in XML for ALL levels in a Mixed Return. This includes the top consolidation, each entity (parent, subsidiary), and the return subgroup(s) level. Additionally, a Form 8916 will be required for all Mixed Returns.

To ensure that Mixed Returns with lines 1-29 blank do not reject because of the IRS' business rules, there should be no forms or statements directly supporting lines 1-29 attached at the consolidated level (e.g. Form 1120 Schedule D, Form 4562, Form 4797, etc.). Instead the applicable forms should be filed at each sub-consolidation level. These instructions do not apply to information forms, disclosures, elections, and other statements that apply to the consolidated return. These items (e.g. Forms 5471, 5472, 5713, 8858, 8865, various elections, disclosures, etc.) should still be attached at the top consolidated level. Any forms or statements that are required to be attached to support any other line items (not lines 1-29) such as, but not limited to, Form 3800, Schedule O, etc., on the consolidated return should be attached at the top consolidated level.

Your software should allow you to select whether you are creating a specific subsidiary return, sub-consolidation return, or eliminations return (you should contact your software vendor for specific guidance). The sub-consolidation return and the eliminations return will not require an EIN. All of the other entities (subsidiaries or parent) will require either an EIN or Applied For in the Employer Identification Number field. A subsidiary may not be included in two subgroups. Based on tests in the regulations, a subsidiary is an 1120-L or 1120-PC, or, if neither, an 1120.

Additional detail to be used in conjunction with the M-3 instructions for each particular form.

These optional directions are available ONLY to corporations required to e-file.

Transactional Data

Transactional data for the following forms may be submitted on a summary form in XML format as defined below. Corporations that use these optional procedures are agreeing that transactional data details will be made available on request.

Form T – Forest Activities Schedule

Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization

Form 4797 – Sale of Business Property

Form 8824 – Like-Kind Exchanges

Form 8873 – Extraterritorial Income Exclusion

Schedule D (1120 and 1120S) – Capital Gains and Losses

Summary format can be used when the underlying transactional data contains more than 100 lines for that particular data type. The summary totals must be reported by data type, classification, or other grouping as required on the form. If there are less than 100 instances of transactions by data type, classification, or other grouping the transactions are required to be itemized.

Transactional Data Summary Formats

A Transactional Data Summary format can only be used when the underlying transactional data includes more than 100 lines for that particular data type by form part (i.e. Schedule D short-term or long-term, Form 4797, Part 1 or Part 2, etc.). Data type can be aggregated across the entity to determine if the 100 lines is met for a particular form. This does not mean that only one summary form will be required, but that once a summary form can be used for a particular data type and form, all of the entities within that return can use that reporting format. For example, if a parent corporation has 50 ST items and the subsidiary has 75 ST items, in aggregate they have 125 ST items and can use the summary reporting format on the Sch D, Part 1 at the subsidiary, the parent and the consolidated level.

Select the applicable form for a summary format example (the summary format examples are on 2005 forms. Apply the same level of detail for 2007):

Form T, (pdf)

Form 4562, (pdf)

Form 4797, (pdf)

Schedule D, (pdf)

Form 8824, (pdf)

Form 8873

If 5.c.(1)(a) - Aggregate of Form 8873 is selected as the basis for reporting, complete all of the applicable Forms 8873 in XML

Otherwise, a separate summary Form 8873 should be filed for each of the three Extraterritorial Income Exclusion pricing methods described in section 941(a)(1)(A) through (C), if applicable, completing only line 54 for the total amount of the Extraterritorial Income Exclusion and details will be available on request.

Summary format can NOT be used to net gain and loss transactions. If a corporation chooses to use the summary format to report transactional data, gains and losses MUST be summarized and reported separately within each form part.

For example, if a corporation had 500 short term gain transactional items and 2000 short term loss transactional items, use of the Summary Format would require the corporation to report 2 separate totals on Part 1 of the Schedule D or Form 4797 under Short Term Gains and Losses, one for the total of the short term gain items and one for the total of the short term loss items.

IRS form instructions do not require corporations to attach the following forms to their income tax return and should not include these forms as part of the electronic return. This list is only provided as a reminder and applies to all corporate filers.

Form 966 - Corporate Dissolution or Liquidation

Form 7004 - Application for Automatic 6-Month Extension of Time To File Certain Business Income Tax, Information, and Other Returns

Form 8023 - Elections Under Section 338 for Corporations Making Qualified Stock Purchases

These optional directions are available ONLY to corporations required to e-file.

The detailed information for each officer is required to be completed on Form 1120, Schedule E for columns C-F. Column A, “Name of officer” and Column B, “Social security number”, are optional. If a consolidated return is filed, each member of an affiliated group must furnish this information.